Audiobook

 

Hard Times

Author : Charles Dickens

Performed By : Frederick Davidson

Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc

Runtime : 11 hours 30 minutes

Categories : Classic Literature

Our Price : $23.95

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"A bitter indictment of industrialization, with its dehumanizing effects on workers and communities in mid-19th-century England."

--Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

"The narrator's British accent goes well with Dickens's overly dramatic and lush prose."

--AudioFile

Originally written for Dickens's weekly magazine, Household Words, this short novel follows the fate of Sissy Jupe, a warm-hearted circus child, and the family that adopts her. Deserted by her ailing father, Sissy is taken into the cold household of the Gradgrind family, which operates a school. The "eminently practical" Thomas Gradgrind believes only in facts and figures and has raised his children accordingly, thoroughly suppressing the imaginative sides of their nature. They grow up in ignorance of love and affection, of beauty and culture, or of empathy for others, and the consequences are devastating. Only after numerous crises does Thomas realize that his principles have corrupted their lives.

Dickens's satirical expos of the Industrial Revolution condemns the utilitarianism that exploited the bodies, minds, and souls of the vulnerable labor class.

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Dozen Red Roses, A: If Thou Must Love Me

Author : Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Performed By : Jenny Agutter

Publisher : BBC Audiobooks Ltd

Runtime : 1 minutes

Categories : Poetry

Our Price : $1.65

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s plea to her lover to love her just for herself, and not for any qualities that may fade away,  read by Jenny Agutter.

A single poem, available also within the collection entitled  "A Dozen Red Roses: 12 Valentines Poems"